As we celebrate the risen Christ, we remember the truth that life conquers death, hope conquers despair, and love conquers all. We revel in the triumph of the resurrection. We hear the proclamation in the garden: “He is not here; He has risen, just as He said! Come, see the place where He lay.”

How absurd and wonderful that this becomes the greatest proclamation of God’s work in the world: Jesus is not here.

What the angel at the tomb announces is that this absence is actually the truest testimony of Divine presence. To these women, and to anyone with eyes of faith, the angel offers this invitation: "Come and see! The empty tomb is not an insult added to injury, but rather the inauguration of a whole new way of life.”

We are called out to the places where life seems dimmed, where injustice seems final, where hope seems extinguished. Because that's not always what we find. Sometimes where we expect our worst fears to be finally confirmed, we find a pregnant pause. We encounter the emptiness of the tomb. And in the void—in the imprints left where God once was—we find hope and life again.

So that is the invitation I want to extend to you: Come and see. Set aside your confidences about where joy can be found. Sit with someone whose life looks unlike yours. Recognize the possibilities in impossible situations. You can’t know what to expect; you never know what you will find. It just might be a place of resurrection.

That’s one of the best things about CLA-LA: together, we are finding God in the world, in the needs of our neighbors, in acquaintances becoming friends, in people discovering the work of justice. We’re refusing to concede the inevitability of oppression. And—sometimes when we least expect it—we are seeing hope catch its breath and watching new life begin.